Author's Note: Rainbowscape, gav, Gray Bard- thanks for the reviews. I appreciate them so much!

Incidentally- in this chapter and later ones, Asher's speech has been translated from "toddler" to "legible."

The Child

Chapter Eight: Fast-Forward

By B.L.A. the Mouse

Rommie walked away from Command, nodding to various crewmen as they passed. There weren't many; having a couple of hundred people on board was different from the bustling of the corridors before the Long Night, but still, it meant better maintenance of the ship and an easier time on the crew than when they had had only six or seven. Even the small number they had had only been there for the past two months or so.

It was fairly early in the evening, especially since she had gotten off her shift early, but she went straight to the VIP quarters she stayed in. She'd moved everything there after finding out that Asher would be staying with her, since they were bigger, with an extra room for attaches, assistants, and similar ilk that had proven to be useful.

The door slid open, and she stepped inside to see Alexandra Jenkins squatting on the floor next to the toddler, helping him stack blocks. Jenkins was a lieutenant in rank, but primarily she took care of Asher during duty shifts and the like. Now she looked up in surprise, black hair swishing around her face and nearly obscuring her vision altogether, as the door slid open. "Andromeda! I thought your shift lasted for another hour."

"So did I. Since we aren't doing anything in particular, though, Captain Hunt let me off early today." She looked down as Asher got to his feet and made his way over. He was still a little awkward walking, but when he got up a good speed he steadied somewhat. Today he decided to walk. "Hi, Ash!"

"Up," he said, holding his arms up above his head.

She grinned and picked him up, letting him wrap his arms around her neck. "So what did you do today?" she asked, addressing both of them.

Asher announced, "Fun!" and squirmed until she let him down and he went back to his blocks.

Jenkins had let Asher get in his announcement, waiting until he finished to speak. "He was great. He didn't eat much lunch, though, so he may be hungry."

"All right. Lieutenant, consider yourself officially off-duty for the night."

"Thanks." She had started to move toward the door when Rommie stopped her.

"For the last time, call me Rommie. Andromeda's my mainframe."

"Have a nice night then, Rommie. And Asher, too." She was still working on getting the abbreviation down, even after being onboard for a few months.

When the officer disappeared out the door, Rommie turned to look at the boy sitting on the floor. He glanced up at her, wondering what was going to happen now, when she did. After a moment, when he didn't look away, she asked, "Are you hungry?"

*****

As usual, dinner was a minor event. It wasn't that Asher was disagreeable. In fact, he was perfectly agreeable usually, it just took him a while to be coaxed away from whatever he was doing. Today that wasn't even needed, but it still took a while. First he had to find and take along a toy- a teddy bear that he usually carried, christened "Blob" for no other reason than that was what Asher had called it the first time he saw it and it stuck. It lived up to its name, being fat but fairly loosely stuffed, so that when set down it formed a blob of fabric. Second she had to find a pair of shoes to put on him, which took a while, especially the finding part. All told, it was a full half-hour before they left.

When they arrived on Mess Deck, she looked around for someone they could join, or at least an open table. Unfortunately, many crewmembers were starting to come off their shifts, so the room was packed. None of the senior staff or crewmembers she knew well were there yet. "All right, Asher," she said, yielding to the insistent tugging on her hand. "I'll look for a place after we get food."

That was another process that took a few minutes, as he couldn't quite decide what he wanted. She was still searching when, with a little prompting, he settled on milk and fruit.

"Rommie!" It was Lieutenant Jenkins, waving from halfway across the room and apparently standing on a chair to be seen as she did. Satisfied that she had gotten the android's attention, she beckoned, adding, "Come over! We have room!"

Rommie smiled and nodded to indicate that the message had been received and started to make their way over, grinning as she watched the officer hop down off the chair, nearly taking down a passer-by.

There was only one chair at the table, so Rommie improvised, sitting down and putting Asher on her lap. He squirmed a little, but quickly settled down to the serious business of eating. She glanced around the table, he gaze resting on Jenkins, a few seats away. "Thank you, Lieutenant."

"Alex," she corrected. "We're off-duty. And," she gestured around the table, "you will not call everyone by rank. I know you have our first names stored somewhere in your database, and I respectfully request that you use them."

Rommie grinned at that and at the murmurs of assent around the table. While Jenkins was the unintentional speaker for the group, simply because she knew the other two the best, the others were not without voice either. The sole Perseid proved that when it piped up, "You can't think we'd let the two of you wander around the Mess Deck until Asher was starving. I welcome the chance to observe human children's eating habits."

A significant, amused glance was exchanged by all seated, somehow missing the Perseid. Rommie checked her database, finding that she was right on target with the guess of medical track. In fact, most of the crew at the table were medical, and all but two had science in general. They were a mix of human, Inaran, Perseid, and two Nietzschean males- the non-medical crew- that were from Sabra-Jaguar pride. They were fairly young. If there was one thing the old crew couldn't get used to, it was the relative youth of the new, all recruits who had signed up in a fiery fit of desire to make a change in the universe.

"Exactly how old is he?" asked one of the Inaran women.

Overhearing the question, Asher interrupted himself long enough to grin and hold up a single finger. The answering smiles from some of the others prompted a giggle.

"Eighteen months in a week," Rommie clarified, smiling herself. He had learned that trick ages ago and loved the response from it. Almost everyone that fell victim to it thought it was cute.

One of the Nietzscheans spoke up. "He's an admirable child."

"Thank you." High praise from a Nietzschean. She decided to change the subject. "I don't think I've had the luxury to talk to many of you yet. What do you think of your duty so far?"

This, of course, prompted a chorus of responses, everything from expressed awe at machinery to complaints about junior officers' quarters size.

"The models in the academy were never this good."

"The gym is extensive."

"I have to share a bathroom!"

"The equipment on Med deck is great."

"Someone else uses my bathroom!"

In fact, the chorus went on for so long that Asher was finishing the last few bites of his food and toying with Blob. Rommie realized how long they had been sitting there when he abandoned both pursuits and started trying to stand on her lap. Thwarted, he tried to do other equally distracting things like fiddle with her zipper and tie her hair in knots. Finally, he looked up at her reproachfully and whined, "Rommie!"

After taking care of Asher for this long, she was very familiar with the routine. She had about two minutes until he got very, very upset.

Jenkins noticed it too. Having had a bit of the same experience, she did her best to fend it off. "C'mere, Ash."

"No!" He sat down firmly on Rommie's lap, set his chin, and his lip started to tremble.

She looked down at him, then around the table. "I think I should go. Usually we leave fairly soon after he finishes eating." She let him slide off her lap, then caught his shoulder before he could make an escape attempt. "Thank you, Alex. And everyone else, of course."

An ensign nodded. "Anytime."

"Rom-mie!" Asher was no longer on the verge of a temper tantrum, but he was pretty impatient. "Go!"

"Coming," she replied as they headed for the door, hearing a new conversation start up behind them.

*****

Rommie checked the video feed from Asher's room, making sure he was asleep before fully relaxing. He was a good kid, but he had a tendency to take up a lot of time, between eating and dressing and playing and reading. She hadn't quite expected the time he would take up back when he was a baby, when he did everything on a schedule. He still had his days arranged like that, but somehow over the past year and a half it had expanded to fill an entire day instead of an hour or two.

The duty schedule, at least, was arranged so she could be here at night and as much as possible during the day. Back when one of the crew, usually Dylan, had arranged it, it was almost always set up that way. Now it was done automatically, but something in the system kept it to her own original schedule.

She turned her mind to their itinerary of recruitment. The next system they were going to be in was Bard, with four planets, two settled by humans. Some wag, inspired by the name of the system, had dubbed the habitable planets "Comedy" and "Poetry," while the unsettled ones were "History" and "Tragedy." She rather admired the humor in it.

The president of the system had asked to speak with Dylan. At the same time, he'd made an odd request for a politico, wanting to know if they could "bring that boy I've seen on the news reports. Only for a few hours- we need to impress upon the population that the Commonwealth has a side that is people-oriented, as well as military."

Dylan had considered the request reasonable and told Rommie to work it out. He would go, of course, and a couple of security officers to be safe. Trance would be along as well- since Beka and Tyr were on a mission elsewhere, she was the only one available. They were meeting the president on the capital planet, Poetry, third out.

And on that note… it was supposed to be spring there. Rommie still had to check on weather conditions for Asher, and sort out things they'd need while they were there, and… ah, the joys of going planetside!